Process for the manufacture of the fatty acids from their esters.



' U TE TATES; FATE.

WILHELM oonns'rnm, or onento'rr'nnnuno, GERMANY, ASSIGNOR To THE FIRM or,.VE EII-I IGTE onn vrlsonn wnnxn AoTInNGEsELnsoHAFT. orcrrantorrnnnuae,

GERM NY;

rnocnss FOR'THE MANUFACTURE or ran No Drawing.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, W'ILHELM Conn STEIN, doctor of'medicine, a subjectof the King of Prussia and the German Emperor, residing at 16 Salzufer,Gharlottenburg, Kingdom'of Prussia, German Empire, have invented new anduseful Improvements 'in Processes for the Manufacture of the Fatty Acidsfrom their Esters,, of which the following is a specification. In thedecomposition ofoils, fats waxes into the corresponding acids an'd-al'cohols by means of vegetable ferments, the presence of an acid mediumduring the decomposition has been found tobenecessary.

This acidnnedium may be obtained by ,the'

addition of free acid or acid salts or by bringing together the. fermentand the oils,-

fats o'r waxes withoutthe addition of acids oracid salts and permittingthe reaction of the ferment to proceed-in the presence ofthe acid whichis in time (although only "very gradually) produced automat-ically bythe mixture. In the various methods suggested for decomposing fats bymeans of ferments', the action is always produced by the simultaneouspresence of the acid and the forment; Now it has been found that heactlon in coinmon'of the ferment and aci proceeds considerably morespeedily and vigorously in the presence of-metallic-salts than intheabsence of such compounds, Any heavy metallic salts maybe employedwhichfido not precipitate albumen. have proved to be particularlysuitable sul fate of manganese, chlorid of manganese, nitrate ofmanganese, acetate of manganese, sulfate of iron, sulfate of aluminium,chlo rid of zinc. lVhich of these salts should be employed, depends uponthe desired rapidity of the reaction and .upon the present. cost priceof the several salts. Salts of manganese have proved most suited for thepur-' pose and sulfate of manganese in particular. The process may, bein two different ways. 1. At the beginnlng of the operation acidsubstances are added.

to the mixture of water, fat (oil or wax) ferment and the metallic salt,2. A mixture of water, fat (oil, wax) and metallic salt is prepared andallowed to stand. I The acid required for the decomposition of the fatunder the influence ofthe ferment is then generated in the mixtureitself.

Sppcifrcati'on of Patent.

The following salts carried into practice FATTY ACIDS FROMrnnrn-"nsrnas.

The ferment employed is the fat decomposing-ferment contained-in thevegetable seeds}v The best ferment is that contained in the seed of thecaster-oil plant. This for 'ment is employed by mixing castor oil seedswater, fat and metallic salt. "titre of the ferment with the-oil mayalso be obtainedbyptreating the castor 'oil seed with ca'storofl andremoving the seed portions from .the drll, and the mixture so obtained=niay beutilized for the decomposition of fat.

A mix- ;Which of-these forms the ferment is best employed in, dependsupon, whether the costof extracting the 'oil ferment mixture is 'retheincreased effort of the mixture as compared with castor oil seeds, orwhether it is economically more advantageous to'employ castor oil seeds.In the lat ter case it is preferable to employ the castoroilYpress-cake' of the castor oil extracting recess. The procedure is asfollows :-100 kilograms of linseed oilare mixed with 30 l.

of water, 2 kilograms of hulled castor oilseeds, 0.15 kilogram of aceticacid and kilogram of sulfate of mahganese.- The mass is stirred, therebyproducing an emulsion, and then allowed to stand at a temperaturebetween 10-4090. After 24 hours a practicallyfcompl'ete decomposition ofthe oil has taken place. The fatty acid, the glycerin and the particlesofseed present may be separated one; from the other. The mass isexpressed and washed With Water. In this manner, 'thefatty acid and theglycerin are obtained simultaneously. In order to separ rate thesetwolgproducts' one'from the other,

the mixtureiis warmed andthen permitted ,to] cool. The; fatty acidsthen' collect upon the] surface; v,ofitlfe liquid from which they'arese'ara'ted. running jofi the aqueous glycerin." The' sulfate ofmanganese 1s precifpitated from the -glycerin by "the addition 0limen-The glycerin mayfthen bepurified by inspissation or byfiltrationfover' bone charcoalor bydistillati'on'. c

If the sulfate of'maga'nese were' omitscribed, the decomposition ofthefatwould be considerably slower and less complete be-;

cause in the absence of metallic salts-the qum tity of acid added isinsufiicient'to obtain av complete decomposition of the -oil'by fer-'ment. If desired a smaller iquantityof cas tor oil seeds may beemployed. 'In this case Patented Jan. 30,1912. Application filedDecember 26, 1905. Serial No. 293,214. 7 v i p .ted in-the operation,QVl'llOh has been dealso the presence of the metallic salt will hastenand facilitate the decomposition.

The hastening of the acid reaction and the formation of acid describedabove are de-- pendent upon the presence of neutral metallic salts. Acidmetallic salts merely act as an acid medium and it would be necessary tomix them with neutral metallic salts in order to hasten their action.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent isThe process of decomposition of fatty acid esters into their acids andalcohols, said process consisting in subjecting said esters,

ammon a in the presence of neutral salts of the heavy metals and ofacids, to the action of fat decomposing ferment-s present in oilorfatbearing plantsin such amount as is insufiicient for causing thecomplete decomposition alone.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing Witnesses.

WILHELM GONNSTEIN.

